Getting Allowance

Did your parents give you allowance when you were younger? How old were you when you received your first allowance, and how were you rewarded?

My parents gave me allowance when I was about 10 every few weeks or so. I would simply help clean the kitchen or do laundry during the weekend, but no clear chores were established. I no longer live at home, but my parents occasionally offer me money in exchange for helping them type certain documents.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I was never given an allowance. I just had to do the chores and work. My father always said I had a roof over my head and that was payment enough. He was right too. It was always like that since I was as young as 7 or 8.

I think it's better I never recieved an allowance anyways. It taught me at a young age that I was pretty well off already and should be thankfull for what I have. I think it may of also made me more carefull with what money I did get when I got older. Since I never really had any or had very little to begin with.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

My parents tried the allowance thing for maybe a month or so when I was about 11 years old, but then they realized that I didn't do anything to deserve an allowance. Instead, they decided to give me $20 for every A that I made each semester in school. That was pretty sweet because I was a straight-A student until my sophomore year of high school.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

My parents never gave me allowance.

NEVER

Such a horrid time. My money I'd spend on things were accumulated from birthday and christmas gifts. We're talkin' about buying maybe one game a year ($60 games holla /__\). Got nice when I got to late high school and could get a job. And I've been juggling several at a time ever since. No allowance, even now.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

When I was seven, my father said that I could have a dollar a week, and if I didn't get it from him I could let it accumulate and pick it up at a later date.

A few problems:

- A dollar can't buy shit
- Most of the time he said he didn't have any money on him
- No fucking way he'd give me accumulated allowance I hadn't received

So then we moved to England and I got £1 every week - Big change in standards. After a while, since I headed to boarding school when I was eight, I was given a wad of cash at the beginning of every term... One quid a week equates to twelve quid a term. WONDERFUL.

I finally got shunted up to five quid a week when I was twelve. And then after my bastard father did a runner, my mum stopped caring about what I did and gave me large cheques at the beginning of every half-term (£100 at the beginning of a term, £50 halfway through).

These days I make my own money for the most part, but my mother still gives me cheques for travelling money.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I think I got allowance for a short period of time. Maybe two months. Consisted of ten dollars a week. It was quickly abandoned when my mom realised I wasn't doing anything to actually earn the money. This was around the age of thirteen.

After that, I'd just ask for money from her whenever I wanted something. Until I got a job anyways.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

It was almost as if I installed allowance at our home, usually my parents would buy me most things provided they weren't too expensive, but I was usually content with playing lego or something. When we did have allowance, well, I can't really say we done anything to earn it. Mum is too nice to us.

FELIPE NO

I never formally got an allowance.
My mom especially would even laugh at the idea if me (or my dad sometimes) ever mentioned it!

Eventually sometime in senior high school/first year uni, my dad just kept giving me $20.00 every Monday which I guess was supposed to be for food. I always saved it up and eventually bought games tri-weekly or so with it instead, or wasted it on playing at the school arcade.

I would get extra money if I went somewhere big for a whole day, eg. theme park, or going out to eat with friends or something. Which I tried to save up similarly.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I've never been given allowance, so when I actually got my own job it was like, "Whoa, cash" for me. I really hated asking my parents to buy things for me, but on the other hand, I have to appreciate them for what they've put up through for me as well.

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I never got allowance. Ever. Never. If I wanted something, I'd have to beg and plead and grovel for it, which makes really bad economic sense.

I'm a hoarder of money now, I like to collect massive amounts of cash, stick it in a drawer and stare at it. I blame my parents.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I was getting $5 every friday, then my mother passed away, moved with my grandparents, and received $10 a week till I moved out at 18. I feel Krelian's pain as far as my father ditching out when he was 12...so did mine.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

When I was a kid, my father was too cheap to give me a weekly allowance. Instead, we set up lemonade stands and sold lemonade in the summer.

We'd usually buy NES games with what we made. Because we (my sister and I) are idiots. I think thats when I started losing respect for games - when I actually had to work to pay for them.

But yea, sometimes, we'd get money for doing shit like raking the leaves in the fall or mowing the lawn in the summer.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Gechmir

My parents never gave me allowance.

NEVER

Such a horrid time. My money I'd spend on things were accumulated from birthday and christmas gifts. We're talkin' about buying maybe one game a year ($60 games holla /__\). Got nice when I got to late high school and could get a job. And I've been juggling several at a time ever since. No allowance, even now.

Exact same way with me. I would get games at my birthday and Christmas (two games in two months? TWO MUCH LOL) and then maybe elsewhere during the year if I really wanted it. I pretty much got whatever I asked for, but I knew that would last insofar as I never asked for too much too often. That amounted to about two games a year, if I was lucky. ;_;

So now I have a job and money, and I'll buy a game if I see it and like it. I'm not as stingy as I thought I'd be -- or, rather, used to be -- now that I have a fairly steady flow of money.

But thank God my parents are paying for college. I'm working two jobs this summer and it would barely be enough to get me through one quarter of school. ;____; So, you know, I think not having an allowance really didn't scar me very much.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I got just enough allowance to eat and rarely any left over to buy anything meaningful. However, I get my first paycheck at the end of this week. The pay is very generous for an internship. I was just dismayed to find out that I get paid only once every two weeks though. I was shocked to learn that was the standard.

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Wow, am I the only one who actually gets a decent allowance here?

During the school year, each week, my parents would give me $30. To survive the week and anything else it threw at me. Most of the time I would use it to buy games. Even if I didn't have any money, I could still ask them to get me something, just as long as it didn't have video and game right next to each other.

Now that it's summer they don't give me shit. Makes me even more desperate for a job. It's getting to that point where i'm just not buying games at the moment.

FELIPE NO

I used to get an allowance, I think it was between $10 and $20 for doing stuff like dishes, cleaning up dog shit and mowing the lawn. I also accumilated additional money by mowing other people's lawns, like my next door neighbor. Got 50 bucks from it and a really good TV for free. The only thing bad about it is a buzzing noise that gets drowned out after a few minutes. I love that 27" incher and even has two A/V outputs with S-Video. Score!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I never got an allowance. I still had to do stuff around the house, I just never specifically got paid for it. I occasionally would get a toy or a video game or something, just because, though if I was getting an actual allowance I probably could have gotten a lot more by buying it myself. Money of course was being spent on me with things like food, clothes, and shelter though, so it's not like I'm complaining about not getting one.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I never got allowance (although my dad gave me the choice to have it) and I think I was better off without it.

Especially when I was younger.
My dad would get me almost anything I wanted, which I probably couldn't get with an allowance unless I saved money for a long time...

I still did work and stuff around the house.
He would pay me if I got good grades in school.
That started 8th grade and ended 12th grade.(because he left)
5=A
3=B
1=C
0=D
F= I pay him 5...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I was never big on allowance, I think I only really started when I was 12 or so. I did my chores sparingly to say the least and got paid only 5 dollars per week if I did do them, so it really wasn't a big incentive for me.

Funny though cause now I do what they asked me to do then and i do it for free. Hahahahahahaa

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When I was 11, my mom started giving me a dollar a week. And somehow, I actually saved those dollars up to buy a Nintendo 64 when it was still $150. There was probably some birthday and Christmas money thrown in there too, though. The allowance maybe hit a couple dollars a week when I got older. My parents always paid for my food and clothes, though, so it wasn't like the allowance was covering necessities.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I kinda had one, kinda didn't. They used to just tell me to grab money when I needed it, like for lunch and if I ever needed anything I'd ask them for the money. Then when I got into high school, they started giving me an allowance per week, but it was just for my lunch and stuff, not really for buying other stuff.

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I never got an allowance persay. Or many random gifts...
My Chritmas stratagem, however, consisted of putting so few items on my list that I would be nearly guaranteed to get them. My parents would always say "it's a wish list, not a get list." Too bad they didn't realize that I wasn't going to fall for that bunch of noise. You put a PlayStation (one) and two games on your Christmas list and nothing else, you're more than likely going to get it.

No, no allowance though. Except when my mom got me Battletoads there were two jars on the counter, one full of marbles representing my owed balance. Every time I would do a chore that normally belonged to my little sisters, I'd get a marble in my paid jar. I think I got through half the marbles before my mom stopped caring.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

From the "other side of the fence," my husband and I tried the allowance thing with our kids and found that we prefer to just have our kids do specific chores just because they're members of a family and have a responsibility to do their share without getting paid to pull their weight.

We sometimes offer them opportunities to earn money by doing things that aren't their regular chores, though. And we reward good grades with money. We have an Excel spreadsheet that calculates how much money each grade is worth, and it takes into account whether the grade is an improvement or a decline from the previous report card.

FELIPE NO

I agree that chores should not necessarily be rewarded with money. My parents give me food and a place to sleep, which is so much more than I probably deserve.

I'm not sure if I'd agree with giving kids money for doing well at school though. But having said that, it probably is a good method of encouragement.
On the other hand, should they fail, they might become more disheartened (due to the lack-of-a-gift). And then pity might cause one to give way (because they "tried their best" and what not), and then we go down the slippery slope. xD

I suppose, being quite naturally motivated in academia, I wouldn't understand though.

This isn't to say that children shouldn't ever be treated. I received a lot (well, a lot being used liberally - anything is really a lot in my eyes xD) of random things, probably in a manner similar to FadedReality.

I'm not sure how to put it - but I think there's something 'wrong' about the business relationship between parent and child. They can do that later, in a real job.

[edit]I suppose I should say 'we', being a kid myself, technically. xD

How ya doing, buddy?

I've never gotten an allowance, as my parents believed that a roof over my head was more than enough. Since I was being housed, fed, and clothed, I didn't complain. If I did anything spectacular, I'd get a Slurpee, though. While I did have quite a bit of money from Christmas and Birthday presents, I wasn't allowed to spend any of it. So if I wanted a certain game, I would have to wait for my Birthday or Christmas.

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